Daisy
by Scotia Daniel
Summary: She came to him in the Spring, and left him in the winter. Now nothing can tear him apart from her. Not even death.


She had come to him in the spring when the trees were at their fullest and flowers began to awaken from their winter sleep. A demon even Lord Sesshomaru couldn't defeat.

She had come with rags on her back and dirt on her little feet. Sesshomaru thought back at the look she gave him, how no fear reflected back. Just curiosity only a little girl could apprehend.

Sesshomaru recalled how she grew up before his very eyes. Although he hadn't changed one bit, he felt as though he had in his heart. Little hands and feet weren't the only things that had grown around them.

In the summer she was now up to his waist. Oh how Rin had grown. From a tormented young girl to a bubbling young woman in her ripe teenage years, the her from before and then could never compare. Yet she still continued to hold that childish charm.

With open arms and quick feet she'd be by his side. No longer in rags but in rich kimonos fit for an emperor's daughter, she wore her hair down like a waterfall down her back, but still held on to the clipped, pulled up hair on the side of her head. Sesshomaru recalled all the times she continued to surprise him with gifts of pet toads and wide grins that tugged at the corners of his own lips. He'd never fully understand the girl. But he didn't have to.

By autumn she was up to his chest and looking at him with wiser eyes. Her hair wild around her aged, smiling face. And Sesshomaru didn't hold it in any longer. He let some of his walls fall for her.

With gentle, leading hands, Rin would take him all over the village with the excitement of a little girl. Yet here she was, a young woman ready to marry. But no on would be able to. Not with him around. No one was good enough for her. No one.

Sitting under magnolia stellata trees, Sesshomaru had her in ways he never thought possible. Here the girl sat in his lap comfortably, head against his chest and in a deep sleep that he couldn't bring himself to wake her out of.

He counted the number of eyelashes bordering her eyes, depicting the shade of her thin lips, and how many freckles took refuge on her face. Sesshomaru wondered to himself how long it took for them to form. How long he had overlooked such minor detail on the girl's face. What else he might've overlooked after all those years. But when Rin awoke and gave him the smile he was so used to seeing, all questions disappeared and he remembered why he overlooked them in the first place. He couldn't get past her smile.

As quick as it came, Autumn ended and he found himself holding Rin to him in the dead of night, the girl asleep in his arms as Sesshomaru listened to the sounds from the dark throughout the witching hours of the Earth. He'd be disappointed when dawn penetrated the black sky but felt the excitement for the new day at hand.

Winter arrived with snow and wonder as everything seemed to be asleep in the wasteland of the planet. As Rin lay sick in his arms, he couldn't help but feel her face and forehead every few minutes with worry. He never was able to show the worry as well as he'd wished, but he knew deep down Rin understood. And she always would.

The days grew older with every breath the world seemed to take and before long his beautiful Rin was dying in his arms. Immortality came with it's ups and downs, but now, more than ever, did he wish he was a normal human so he, too, could die with his beloved flower he had watched grow before his eyes.

He thought back to all the times they shared and the loved that seemed to flow between them when words need not had been said. Oh how fast those times had gone. Too fast. Sesshomaru cursed himself for counting the days away and allowing such times be wasted doing nothing. Even though those times between them were filled with nothing but lazy days, they were also the best. And for that he could not have any regrets.

Laying Rin in her grave, he'd bury her with his own clawed hands. He only left when it was truly needed and he'd talk to the stone that was now in her replace. Sesshomaru listened as he told her about what they'd do when summer came and the sun kissed the sky again. He talked about how he'd let her braid his hair again in the spring and tie in as many daisies as she'd like.

If anyone had seen him, they would think him a mad man. But if one had known better, they'd realize it was from a broken heart. But Sesshomaru never minded them. Deep down he knew, once spring creeped around the corner, he'd find Rin and take her back. He didn't care how long it would take or how hard it might've been. Or if it even killed him. Sesshomaru knew right then he'd do all he could to bring his little girl back.

And as spring finally peeked from the trenches of the snow, Sesshomaru did what he had promised. After years of walking to no end and walking around the seven gates of hell, he finally returned to Rin's grave. The marker was hidden by the body of vines and her name was barely distinguishable.

"I'm sorry for coming so late, Rin. Please never forgive me for leaving you for so long."

He placed a reef of flowers on the stone and brushed the vines off as much as he could. Bending down to the grave, Sesshomaru dug a small hole in the center of the grave and plopped a seed into it, covering it up with soil.

Day after day the lord would come back to the grave and water the seed and tend to it as if it had been his own child. And day after day, he'd be there from when the sun rose in the sky and fell to the coming night.

By next spring, a flower had grown. A daisy. It's petals thick and luscious, spewing a harmonious scent attracting even the dumbest of the bees. Sesshomaru watched as the ground became softer and crumble and shake under the sweet weed. Not soon enough, Rin sat up, as young and beautiful as she had been in her youth. Sesshomaru bent down and held her hands, every emotion he could possibly think of to describe how he felt at that point in time in his eyes.

"Rin."


End file.
